Self-Indulgence and Profits of Sin

If those who profess Christ do not clean up their own house, unbelievers will continue to drag Christ through the muck. Take for instance, the recent self-indulgences of Eddie Long, pastor of a massive church in Atlanta, Georgia.

• $350,000 luxury car.
• $1.4 million six-bedroom, nine-bath mansion on 20 acres.
• Between 1997 and 2000, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries Inc. provided its founder with at least $3.07 million in salary, benefits and use of property.
• In those same four years, the charity only made $3.1 million in other donations. It’s impossible to tell to whom those funds went as the records aren’t itemized, as required by the IRS. The four-person board responsible for overseeing the charity included both Long and his wife.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has opened a Senate investigation of various complaints levied against gross excess within mega-churches. Those being investigated include Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn and Paula White.

My Uncle Clyde recently sent out a list of the private planes owned by these mega-wealthy pastors (International Pentecostal Church of Christ E-Date):

• Paula White - Hawker-Siddeley "Jet Dragon"
• Jesse Duplantis, Jerry Savelle, Mark Bishop - Each have a Cessna Citation 500 ringing in at $1.25 million each.
• Fred Price, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn - Each have a Grumman Gulfstream II. With a two-man crew and 19 passengers, these cruise at 581 mph with a range of 4,275 miles. Used, they're worth about $4.5 million each.
• Paul Crouch - Bombardier Challenger 604. Carrying a crew of two plus 19 passengers, she cruises at 529 mph with a range of 3,860 miles. She's valued at $16.5 million, not including Paul's "special interior remodeling."
• The late Ken Hagin - Challenger 601valued at $6 million.
• Joyce Meyer - Challenger 600, $4.5 million.
• Kenneth Copeland - Cessna Citation 550 Bravo ($3.4 million), a Grumman Gulfstream II ($4.5 million), a Cessna Golden Eagle, and a Beech E-55, a lesser aircraft and his own airport. Copeland said that God wanted him and Gloria to each have their own Cessna Citation Ten super-jets at $20 million each.

All of these names have resurfaced again-and-again as people who have taken the widows last mite in order to live a life of self-indulgent luxury.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping (2 Peter 2:1-3).

Citations:
Atlanta Journal
Religion News Blog